In Florida, canopy size means nothing.  The tree needs to be of a mature age, approximately 10 years of age, before it will go into production.

I purchased mine as a 3 gallon tree. Set fruit on year 4 (20 pieces approx.) The problem in south florida is lack of chill hours. I have seen 1 f tall trees with fruit on

What is interesting is that the tree is blooming again. The blooms in the pictured are opening now while fruit keep developing. I can count at least 5 more panicles.

Also it is worth reminding that I am in SOUTH FLORIDA. You Californians have it easier with Annonas, Avos and white sapote.

Down here (Miami and surroundings) White Sapote does not fruit consistently. So if somebody would like to give it a try I highly recommend homestead cultivar from Excalibur. It appears being self fertile.

Sapodillas tend to be poillinated by ants.

If you use pesticide around the house that may be the reason why fruit set is disappointing

It is blooming heavily (blooms haven t opened yet). So I am throwing veggie and fruit scrap under the tree and on the lower branches with the hope ants find it.

Once they do and get to taste the sap that surrounds new growth and flowers fruit set should also improve

My Hasya is 10 feet tall and set 2 sapodillas, 1 each year, for the last 2 years....the fruit was relatively bland compared to Alano but much larger. I just planted a Makok close to it to improve pollination. But honestly if the taste does not improve the tree is going to go to the mulch pile....

I have had also an Alano for 5 years and it tends to grow sideways at first. The tree now looks like a huge wide bush but it has finally started growing vertically. It is  a good producer and although fruit is small it is very sweet. I love it

I am resurrecting this old post to get help identifying an avo variety. It should be an easy one for the expert.

I am a recent Florida avocado convert. I used to prefer the Cali rich varieties but the Florida ones have grown on me and I have learned that while some are truly watered down some others can be excellent.

Like, for example, the one I bought at publix a few days back. All Florida avos are labelled slimcados. The truth is that publix keeps its shelves stocked by buying different avo varieties during the year.

This one which is a large fruit (over a pound) has a slightly sweet flavor and it is creamy but not in an oily way. Considering I bought it in January what could it be? See pics below

I found this picture on line. I know that espalier as an horticultural method is particularly popular with apples, pears and I believe stone fruit. But I did not know it would be possible with mangoes.

I am thinking of giving it a try along the south fence on my property. The alley between me and my neighbor is paved on both sides with the exception of a long narrow strip of dirt (on my side) that is approximately 2 foot wide and 40 foot long running along the entire property. I could start with pickering, rosigold, carry and Neelam. All smaller, more manageable varieties

Has any of you attempted anything similar? What do you guys think?

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Espalier (/ɨˈspælɪər/ or /ɨˈspæli.eɪ/) is the horticultural and ancient agricultural practice of controlling woody plant growth for the production of fruit, by pruning and tying branches to a frame, frequently in formal patterns, flat against a structure such as a wall, fence, or trellis, and also plants which have been shaped in this wa

So now that my lychee is blooming does anybody have any good piece of advice to ensure good pollination and fruit set?

Also, my longan is flushing - meaning no blooms. I thought this is counter intuitive, lychee blooming, longan (which is supposed to be lower maintenance) flushing....I guess I will have to try with potassium chlorate....

Hi everyone – I thought to share with the community my recent experience with a Sweetheart lychee in Miami Beach as a backyard grower hoping that it may be useful to other fellow growers who were frustrated – like me – with this tree finicky behavior especially considering the scant information on this newly introduced variety.

I bought this specimen at PIN 3.5 years ago and it grew to become a beautiful and healthy 8 foot tall tree with a full round canopy. As the tree never bloomed I thought to reach out to 2 other backyard growers in my neighborhood and listen to their experience.  Feedback was not very encouraging. Their trees - both over 15 years old - never bloomed with 1 exception – 2010 – when a more serious cold front hit Miami and the Beach. That year they had a bumper crop. Nothing since then.

The Beach is a more difficult growing environment for lychees due to the difficulty of getting sufficient chill hours. It is common knowledge that the Beach is consistently warmer than Miami due to its  exposure to both the Ocean and the bay which act as insulators.

As a last resort I decided to follow lycheesonline recommendations and see whether I could bring the tree to bloom through human intervention. Here is what I did. 1) Stopped fertilizing the tree in July. 2) Pruned in August. 3) Girdled in October. The weather helped too with a colder winter.

The tree is now blooming. And this may not sound like big news considering this year’s weather. What I found relevant is that only and exclusively the canopy impacted by girdling is developing panicles. I counted 19 of them. The rest of the tree does not have a single panicle.


Lycheesonline reports:  “Don't be surprised when the girdled branch(s) is loaded with fruit and the rest of the tree fruits lightly. The fruiting of the non-girdled branch is typical of what the tree would have produced had you not girdled the tree at all”. This means that without girdling my tree would not have bloomed at all.

I must conclude that in my case girdling was not just a bloom booster, as many articles report, but rather the critical step to trigger blooming.

This said I doubt girdling would be able to induce blooming with average temp of 70F. But in borderline situations - meaning when you get close to the chill requirement but not quite - girdling may be able to give your tree the extra boost to do just that.

Now I know that even with 55 average temp in February (this is the reported temp in Miami Beach for this month) my Sweetheart would not bloom (unless I girdle it). Whereas Mauritius - based on my Neighbor’s experience in 2010 - would bloom without human intervention. So Sweetheart appears to be less reliable than Mauritius based on this specific comparison (which is however only 1 data point and therefore far from being conclusive). Being my tree only 3.5 I realize there may be a juvenile factor to be considered and as the tree matures it may be able to bloom in conjunction with slightly higher temperatures.

My Neighbor’s tree, a large Mauritius – see third picture - is blooming too this year (the way it did in 2010 without any human intervention). He is in the ice business and this year, for the first time, has applied 100 pounds of ice daily for 14 days in a row. I do not think we can draw a clear conclusion on the efficacy of ice applications. There is research out there suggesting that cooling roots only is not sufficient. Besides Mauritius is described as a more reliable variety for south east Florida. If you add to that the fact that we had a cooler winter on the Beach this year than we did in 2010 I think it is reasonable to think that it would have bloomed no matter what. Below I report the average temperatures in Miami Beach in the last 6 years.

                  Nov   Dec   Jan   Feb
season 2009   71   70   67   66
season 2010   75   72   60   62
season 2011   73   60   66   70
season 2012   75   73   69   72
season 2013   72   73   74   72
season 2014   76   70   67   73
season 2015   72   70   70   55

good point on the critters. Of my Alano so far I have been able to eat only 1 sapodilla. I tried to protect most fruits with ziplocs to no avial. I would find the plastic bags at the base of the tree empty with just a few seeds. By looking at what is left of the bags i would say squirrels must be the ones to blame.

still on the lookout here but despite the numerous cold fronts, despite the religiously observed pruning schedule and despite girdling my sweetheart does not appear to be wanting to put out any panicle. I am taking applications for adoption. Anybody leaving in Miami proper (not on the beach) may have a better luck with it.

True to be told, I took on the habit to compare the temperature in Miami Beach and in Davie and most of the time I did detect a delta of 2 to 5 degrees with the Beach always hotter than the mainland. I think that is my main challenge.

The tree is going to the mulch pile by mid March....anybody who is interested (free tree as long as you dig it up) please email me. I will replace it with a Keitt. End of the story....

do you guys think the cold snap we had this week may be sufficient to supply enough chill hours to our lychees down here in South Florida?

Is anybody in South Florida getting any bloom so far on their lychee trees?